Safe Microbiome Perturbations Series

The Safe Microbiome Perturbations Series is a 3-part online event series due to take place from January to March 2026.

In 2024, the Microbiology Society organised a workshop that brought together academic, industry, and other stakeholders to discuss the safety assessment of microbiome perturbations. In this webinar series, participants from the workshop will share insights & emerging priorities.

Each webinar spotlights a different human microbiome—skin, gut, or oral—and dives into how everyday interventions like cosmetics, food and medicines, including probiotics, and daily oral hygiene affect them. Discover how the latest safety science could help assess the potential impact of microbiome changes on our health from leading academics and industry experts.

Every session wraps up with an interactive Q&A, ensuring your questions are addressed. For a deeper dive, check out the corresponding publication: Assessing the safety of microbiome perturbations | Microbiology Society.

The current schedule is as follows:

Date

Speakers

Topic

Wednesday 28 January 2026, 13:00-14:30

Catherine O’Neill (University of Manchester, UK) and Aline Metris (Unilever SERS, UK)

Skin microbiome and in vitro methods

Thursday 26 February 2026, 13:00-14:30

Lindsay Hall (University of Birmingham, UK) and Oliver Hasselwander (IFF, UK)

Gut microbiome and probiotics

Friday 20 March 2026, 13:00-14:30

Nick Jakubovics (Newcastle University, UK) and Robert Finn (EMBL-EBI, UK)

Oral microbiome and bioinformatics approaches

 

These events are free, and all are welcome to attend.

A recording of each event will be made available exclusively to Microbiology Society members.

Sign up to attend this series of seminars via the events below. All seminars will be run via Zoom, a link for which will be sent to you via email prior to the meeting. Please ensure you have updated to the latest version of the Zoom desktop or mobile application (version 5.3 or higher is recommended). Please note all times listed are in UK time. 

Upcoming Events

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    Event resources

    Watch a series of professional development talks from previous events, aimed at supporting our members’ knowledge and career growth.